WORLD PROPERTY CHANNEL ®

(LONDON, UK) -- Cash is king and no one knows it better than international real estate giant Blackstone Group.

The New York City-based conglomerate says it has raised 3.1 billion euros ($4.3 billion U.S.) for a fund to invest in property throughout Europe, as it anticipates the sector's recovery.
 
The Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe III fund had initially sought to raise   2.5 billion euros, the company said in a statement.

Chad Pike

"(The fund) is well positioned to take advantage of the inevitable recapitalization of the property sector," says Chad Pike, senior managing director and co-head of Blackstone Real Estate, London.

"Given the continued deterioration in the global economy and the lagging nature of the real estate market, we will remain disciplined and cautious in deploying this capital over the coming years," he said.

Pike announced Blackstone's new fund at the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit in London. 

With the new fund, Blackstone, a private equity group, is returning to the traditional commercial property market in Europe for the first time since 2004.

The Financial Times of London reports that  "having sat on the sidelines of the commercial property market over the past years, regarding it as overpriced, Blackstone will use the fund in its hunt for opportunistic purchases from banks that have called in defaulted loans, or distressed property investors being forced to sell. "

The Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe III fund will mainly focus on over-leveraged traditional real estate, which had been acquired at peak levels and aggressively financed.

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